Janet Collins
Billy MLOST FREEDOMS
April 27th 2008 09:45
On Friday night, I tuned into ABC 1 and watched for the first time “Grumpy Old Men”. For those who haven’t seen it, the show is funny and topical with older men airing their pet hates about the world today. The show is British but it would resonate with many here in Australia.
Friday’s episode was all about irritations and annoyance at their government’s intervention in their lives, taking away the freedoms they once had. All the government impositions were covered from compulsory seat belts in cars and compulsory helmets on bikes to bans on smoking in pubs and restaurants and their attitudes to smokers themselves. One of the biggest gripes seemed to be with the proliferation of CCTV equipment all over London – in streets, buses, public places, shopping places and restaurants and the government line that it was for their own protection. In Australia the story is much the same.
Ironically, these protections and restrictions on personal freedom have developed over a time of market economics, economic rationalism and the winding back of government intervention in private enterprise. If governments are so concerned with protection of the individual, then where were they before the collapse of HIH and One-Tel and even more recently, Opus Prime? These episodes emphasise the lack of scrutiny enjoyed by our captains of industry. And don’t get me started on the banks.
Ethical behaviour seems to have become the sole responsibility of the individual. This was highlighted recently in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald citing the mechanisms Randwick and Ryde Councils have put in place to monitor rubbish and recycling habits of the residents in their council areas. Only a week before this article, the same newspaper exposed the false reporting of recycling figures in the business sector, particularly the hospitality sector where businesses in general continue to send recyclable items to landfill through waste contractors.
The responsibility for the environment, like many other critical issues, should be shared by everyone. Maybe those in power should use the same guilt-tripping measures that individuals have been bombarded with over the past years. Or maybe they could just hit them where it hurts most – their pockets.
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